


Oh Moonlight, Illuminate These Feelings For Me, For I Cannot Figure Them Out Alone

by howthemoonsuitsthenightsky



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, but NOT FOR LONG LOL, cuteness, when will these two admit their feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-23 04:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21314167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howthemoonsuitsthenightsky/pseuds/howthemoonsuitsthenightsky
Summary: What if, instead of Anne interrupting the moment she and Gilbert shared under the moonlight, Gilbert did?
Relationships: Gilbert Blythe & Anne Shirley, Gilbert Blythe/Anne Shirley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 259





	Oh Moonlight, Illuminate These Feelings For Me, For I Cannot Figure Them Out Alone

Gilbert couldn’t help but let his eyes trace over Anne’s features as he sat beside her on Miss Stacey’s porch. The moonlight illuminated her eyes and made her skin reflect the darkness around them, her freckles standing out despite the dimness. He let his eyes wander lower, to the soft curve of her lips and the peaks of her cupid’s bow. He had never understood why the shape of someone’s lips could give reference to something like Cupid but staring at Anne’s suddenly awakened his realisation; without even knowing their touch, he could fall in love with lips like hers.

Gilbert felt his heart rate quicken beneath his thin shirt, emitting a pulse so loud that it became the only thing he could hear. How desperately he wanted to reach forward, to brush the tips of his fingers, connecting the dots between Anne’s freckles, until they would find their way to her lips. Once there, he could only imagine how the threads of her lips would separate for him, letting him feel the smooth curvature of the redness usually hidden. 

He breathed in sharply as he realised that his thoughts had led to an involuntary reaction, one that he had learnt how to avoid many years past but had somehow become a problem once more. This particular rush of blood snapped him out of his thoughts, causing him to cough in order to keep Anne’s eyes firmly fixed on his face. He raised one knee to the next step up to serve the dual purpose of rearranging himself and blocking Anne’s view. 

A look of concern passed over Anne’s features, as if she too had been lost in the moment between them. Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to stand if she asked him whether they should head back in, he asked the first question that came into his head. “Why isn’t Diana here?”

Gilbert was shocked by the sudden cry that erupted from between the lips that he had been admiring a few seconds earlier. Anne’s body curled forward until her head was only being cushioned from her knees by her hands, all the while short yelps and cries were being ushered out of her. “Diana,” Gilbert heard her mumble between the sobs.

Unsure of what to do, Gilbert reached out a hand, letting it fall gently on her back and rubbing it in small circles, as he would do for Delphine on one of the, many, nights when she wouldn’t sleep. “Anne?” He felt his voice quiver with worry, having only expected a response that she had come down with a cold or some other minor ailment. “Anne, I’m sorry, what happened?”

With his continued soothing rubs, Anne slowly sat up, her cries and yelps fading, despite her still wobbly breaths. “It’s me who should apologise,” she managed to gulp out, “I shouldn’t have reacted like that, but I haven’t even had time to process everything and it’s all so fresh!”

“What is?” Gilbert let his hand fall from her back and moved himself down to the step below Anne, there now being no need for her to not be able to see all of him. Their new positioning brought his face to just below hers, so close that he could feel her staggered, warm breaths on his forehead. 

“I have lost my bosom friend, if I ever had her in the first place.” While she spoke, she let her fingers run under her eyelashes, collecting the tears that were still falling silently there and brushing them aside. Gilbert struggled not to reach up and take the task from her.

“How have you lost her?” Gilbert let his voice relax from the panicked tone he had had after her initial outburst, not wanting to inspire a more worrying reaction.

“I can’t explain, not because it contains gossip, though it does, but because I still respect her enough that I won’t tell her secrets.” Anne captured her bottom lip between her teeth, mulling over her thoughts. “But it became clear that I am a mere filler friend for her, until she can find someone better in Paris. She even,” Anne paused to reach into her pocket and pull out something that shined almost as much as she did in the moonlight, “she even gave me back her heart.”

She held the object in her hand, a small gold heart on a chain, Gilbert recognising it instantly as the one he had seen the girl’s wearing on many occasions. There was a small dent near the point where it met the chain, which Anne had begun to trace her thumb over. 

“I cannot speak of the friendship between you and Diana completely, only the two people in a friendship fully understand what the relationship entails, but Anne,” at the sound of her name, she looked up from the heart in her hands to meet Gilbert’s gaze, “I know how wonderful you are, and you are no one’s filler friend.”

He tried to raise the corners of his lips into a smile that would convince the tears to stop flowing in their steady stream from the edges of Anne’s eyelids. He knew that if he could, if she were his betrothed, he would reach his lips up to her soft skin and kiss away each tear until they would stop falling. 

“Really?” 

Instead of pulling him out of his daze, Anne’s words only sunk him deeper. “Really.” His voice had dropped to a whisper, barely loud enough for it to be heard over the sounds of the party in the house behind them. “You’re far too brilliant for that.”

He felt himself leaning closer, reaching his head up to align their lips. Before he could complete the task, Anne’s chin was suddenly resting on his shoulder, her arms wrapped tightly around him and the sweet scent of her hair filling his nostrils. “Thank you, Gilbert,” he heard her whisper in his ear, her breath catching it in a sweet tale of delight. 

Gilbert allowed his eyes to close and his own arms to wrap around her waist, pulling her slightly closer than their initial position had allowed. “Of course,” he found himself whispering back. “It’s only the truth.”

After a few seconds, though it felt like a glorious long summer of bliss to Gilbert, Anne’s arms loosened around him and he let her pull back. As she did their cheeks brushed, stunning them both into breathlessness, their faces mere inches apart.

A loud bang from the front door of Miss Stacey’s house increased the distance, Gilbert springing back so quickly that he almost fell backwards off the porch steps. Thankfully, Anne was too distracted by whoever had made the noise to see.

Gilbert looked up to find Miss Stacey walking towards them, a small smile spread across her features. “I was worried that you two had headed off home!” Her exclamation planted an idea in Gilbert’s head, though one he feared he wouldn’t be able to use that night. “Are you alright out here?”

Anne stood up at Miss Stacey’s words, brushing down the front of her skirts though nothing was there. She quickly ran her hands under her eyes, checking she had removed any residual tears, before speaking. “Yes, thank you, we’ll be back in a moment.”

“Good, good.” She nodded over at Gilbert, who was yet to stand, and turned around, heading back into the house and towards distinguishable shouts of “Moody, Moody!”

With the door shut, Anne quickly tucked the heart back into her skirts and turned back to him. “I guess we better head back in then.” With a small smile, she extended her hand down towards where he sat, which Gilbert gladly took. As Anne’s hand curved to hold his as he stood, Gilbert almost couldn’t complete the action, purely for the feeling of his bare skin against hers. Once again, his heart rate quickened and he silently cursed the possibility that if Anne so much looked at him again tonight, he may go into cardiac arrest. 

With Gilbert standing, Anne let go of his hand. The sudden loss of contact was enough to send a chill through him, knocking the air out of his lungs. 

Slowly, Anne started to walk away from him, her dress swaying in a non-existent breeze. Just as her hand came to rest on the door handle, she twirled back to Gilbert, letting her eyes meet his through the growing darkness. “Thank you, Gilbert. I’m ever so glad I have you.”

I’m ever so glad I have you too, Anne Shirley-Cuthbert, Gilbert wanted to say. Instead, he could only give her a smile and a nod before she turned once more and entered the house without him.

**Author's Note:**

> She's back with another weekly instalment of Shirbert. I should probably be doing uni work instead, but Anne with an E is more important, right??
> 
> I also don't know why that tag in the description is suddenly in capitals, I swear I didn't type it out like that, but it made me laugh so hey ho.


End file.
